William "Stage" Boyd becomes involved in strange events at a posh hotel, beginning with the discovery of a human ear bone in a fireplace.

A.k.a. Eyes of Mystery.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet
Audio/Visual: sound, black & white
Keywords: William "Stage" Boyd; mystery; Claudia Dell; Hooper Atchley

Creative Commons license: Public Domain Mark 1.0

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Reviewer: billbarstad - - July 24, 2011
Subject: Goofy
I liked this movie. It provided a nice change of pace from the usual mysteries I've been getting from The Internet Archive with murders committed by greedy relatives, jealous lovers, madmen, and such. The story starts as a pair of friends reunite at a New York hotel where, unbeknownst to them, something nasty has occurred. The story is peppered with goofiness, which made it that much better.

Shots are fired, a burned ear bone is discovered, the hotel management is evasive. The second act moves along nicely as the friends investigate. A young woman had been wronged.

I could empathize with the situation the young woman was placed in by conspirators associated with a hotel. It was a nightmare, like one would expect to find in a Hitchcock movie, and it drew me into the story. Of course, her and her friend's reaction to her predicament was goofy.

There's a close-up scene of what looked like her moving her purse behind her back when she's confronted by her enemies in her friend's bungalow that I had to watch a few times. The director just didn't communicate what was happening. He could have, but it becomes clear a little later.

Other parts of the third act take place in a funeral home where more laughable activities occur. There's also the outright nonsense of a funeral parlor without cremation facilities, so its director had to use a hotel room fireplace.

"The hardest part of the human anatomy to destroy by fire, or any other means, is the ear bone."

There are ear bones! See this page.

That ear bone nonsense had me recalling that I'd seen this movie on TV years ago.

I downloaded the 437MB AVI file. Video quality was good, though like many movies here at IA, it was improved markedly by nudging the brightness control on my video player up a bit. The audio quality was fine.

Reviewer: rclo - - July 2, 2011
Subject: A Little of This; A Little of That
As befits a 1932 escapism flick, there's a little mystery, a little terror, some spookish pranks, some token technological sideshow and a let's-all-see-this-through-together morality.

Spoiler Alert (not really):

An earbone but no ashes?? Can a common fireplace support incineration parameters?

Reviewer: NoiseCollector - - June 30, 2011
Subject: ear bone is connected to the...
cartiledge

Reviewer: picfixer - - June 27, 2011
Subject: The ear bone's connected to the…
Off-beat variation on an old story which has since been redone many more times. The mystery opens with the discovery of a human "ear bone," and concludes with a startling bit of forensic misinformation. Less than thrilling, but the plot does go hilariously off the deep end with a whacky mortuary scene worth three stars for the wrong reasons. The mystery's physical explanation is utterly impossible. Stars William Boyd (not William "Hop-a-long" Boyd) as a lip-reading detective. The production values are adequate for the screenplay - the acting is not, and neither is the direction. Entertaining enough for one viewing, provided you hold out until the mortuary scene.

The print is complete except for minor missing-frame dropouts. The video and audio qualities are good enough.